[Salopbaggie]

But, given our Brexit, will he need to get a work permit ?

Interesting point. What are the laws now (or 3 years time, whenever, when we come out)? Anyone know?

Yep as I have been looking into this for a while and have posted on it a few times.  Until Article 50 takes full effect so 2 years (apx) after it is implemented all is well, after that time all European players will become overseas players.

In order to get a work visa for an overseas player, the player must be of "the highest standard", there is a specific wording but I cannot remember what it is and I am to lazy to look it up at the moment.  To meet the criteria for a visa, over the previous two years the player has to have represented their country at a minimum of 75% of category A games, where they were eligible to be called up, (the lowest type of game that counts as category A is a qualifier for a major competition).  The players country also has to be in the worlds top 70 countries (on average over the previous two years) in the U.E.F.A. rankings.  Both of these conditions are measured from the date of application

Hope that helps  

Thanks, Salop - that's quite significant. First thoughts are that British players' salaries will double, and there will be a big scramble for Clubs to get the cream. No European Championship players, etc.

My concern is that we will end up in a situation where English players are at even more of a premium than they are now, as there will be no where near as many European players, with many of them not meeting the criteria for a visa. Obviously the big 6 will not be as badly affected as the rest of us, but will still be affected and the knock on will be a lot of the players who would normally end up with the mid table downwards Premiership teams will go to the top half clubs, the rest will have to take players that would at present go to the the Championship, to make up numbers and so on down the leagues.

As a result the attraction of the game will go down to the overseas buyers of TV rights, because not as many names will not be here and eventually the money coming in will go down. That in turn will mean even the big clubs will not be able to afford the top players and the whole situation will just escalate and get progressively worse until we are all playing in the park on Sunday's. (Now that's scaremongering) :-) Obviously I do not expect it to get quite that bad but i am sure you can see what I mean.